Friday, December 28, 2012

EXTRA: $1 Billion?!?

If
our national government falls over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” Illinois
stands to lose $1 billion.

AT
LEAST THAT’S what state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka thinks.

She
told the business publication that if the federal government has to impose a
series of financially harmful measures because of the inability of political
people to reach a deal on their own, the state will lose about $500 million in
federal grants.

After
all, something will have to be cut. Also, Illinoisans would lose some $500
million collectively in income taxes – because we’ll have to pay more.

Just
a little more catastrophe to have to cope with, at a time when our state’s
Legislature is supposed to be returning next week for a few final days of
action and they’re supposed to try to resolve the pension funding problems that
Illinois has long been confronted with.

THAT
IS ANOTHER problem where political people seem to be incapable of reaching
agreement.

For
as state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, said recently, there are several
options under consideration by the General Assembly that could work. “Some of them aren’t even
completely draconian,” he said.

... and into the state pension morass

Yet
our legislators can’t seem to come to agreement on what option to consider. It makes
me think the Illinois Legislature is a perfect training ground for our Congress
– particularly when it comes to political procrastination!

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.